


On It

by agendershiro



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Just an all about good time, platonic and fluff, you know the kind where Shiro just falls asleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 16:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8108683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agendershiro/pseuds/agendershiro
Summary: A small run in with some unfriendly locals leaves Shiro's arm a little useless. Luckily the resident geniuses are up and at 'em but Shiro can't seem to fight off the need to sleep any longer.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this in a WIP stage for a while so I decided to spruce it up and publish it. I'm love hunk

The residents of the castle of lions had an unfortunate run in with some not so friendly locals. They had stopped at the system because it had showed no signs of galra intrusion. They had hoped to make allies with the local population of the planet, but some miscommunication lead to the small, humanoid and lizard like locals to attack the paladins.

It was rather uneventful, and easy to contain once things were sorted out. However in the meantime, one of their spears powered by some unknown source of electrical energy had struck Shiro right in a elbow gap in his suit, causing his mechanical arm to short out.

“Well, since they’re our friends now we’ll have to make sure to ask them about their technology! If it can take out your arm made of galra tech, maybe it can do us good!” Allura pointed out, a smile spread on her face as she paced in front of Shiro. He was seated on the couch in the living room area of the castle.

“Yeah, maybe.” His tone was less than enthusiastic. He slumped slightly over, the weight of the arm beginning to pull at his shoulder and making him terribly uncomfortable.

“Does it hurt?” Allura frowned and stopped in front of him the next time she paced past.

“Uhh.. I mean. It’s heavy.. It has some sort of auto balancing and weight correcting when it’s active to even out my body weight and not throw me off balance.” Shiro explained. Though he was unaware of the actual technology that caused his arm to act as it did, it was evident that it was functioning in such a way. “As light as it feels when it’s working.. Its sure damn heavy when it’s not.”

“Pidge and Hunk will fix you right up.” Allura placed her hands on her hips, her voice booming with energy.

Eventually after Allura had stopped her pacing and chattering to herself, she made her way off to the kitchen to help Lance and Keith with setting up dinner. While Shiro was normally very interested in whatever sort of scientific, technological, or political conversation Allura tried to carry on, right now he was just tired. 

He sat on the couch in the quiet of the room. The team had already helped him finagle his paladin armor off and change when they arrived at the castle, so now he was left in tank top and a pair of long shorts. The castle was a bit cold, and he hated sitting there. His eyes dropping and head bobbing about while he struggled to keep awake. It was not long though before he heard a voice calling for him.

“Shiro! You can come to the lab now.” Shiro’s half closed eyelids popped open and he glanced to the doorway to see Pidge waving for him to follow her to the lab.

Pidge had her lab set up in her hangar with the lions, but she had a smaller, secondary one she shared with Hunk as well. This is where many of the tools were stored and things were planned out before she and Hunk would set off to the hangers to work on their bigger experiments.

“Come on, come on.” Pidge urged him into the room. The room was just bigger than their bedrooms down the hall and so appeared cluttered. There were papers of all sorts strewn about on shelves and workbenches. Tools, gadgets and machinery that were a mix of easy to identify to sorts of Altean tech that Pidge and Hunk were getting a feel for accompanied them and left little truly free room. A table was pressed against the wall with two chairs on the long side and on the short side to the left. Shiro assumed this is where he would be sitting.

“Coran didn’t think the cryo-pod would help, so we came up with some ideas. Hunk announced when Shiro entered the room. He tapped lightly on the table, inviting Shiro to take a seat.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t think so either. Easy to rule out considering it’s not a biological issue.” Shiro agreed while he watched Hunk and Pidge move around each other in easy silence. They were good at working around each other in this small lab. “Plus I Uh.. wouldn’t be too keen on the idea of the cryo-pod anyways.” Shiro admitted. The idea of being stuffed into a tiny area as small as the pod and then made to sleep made him deeply distraught.

“I get you dude, I hate small places too. Lucky our lions are pretty roomy in the driver seats!” Hunk chuckled while putting on his pair of working glasses. Shiro cracked a smile as well. Whether or not Hunk was actually agreeing with him, or was just saying something to make him feel better was irrelevant. Shiro was just happy he did not ask ‘why?’

“Hunk’s better at mechanics,” Pidge started, “But I know my way around some of the Galra tech. So hopefully we’ll be able to better figure this out in no time!” They were indeed hopeful. It was clearly uncomfortable for Shiro to be carrying around the extra and uncontrollable weight dropping off his shoulder, despite whatever claims he may make. So the two of them made it a priority to figure this out as soon as possible.

Hunk and Pidge both took a seat in chairs at the tables and scooted close to Shiro. They lifted his arm onto the table so his palm was facing up. Shiro watched carefully as the pair maneuvered a panel from his forearm and began inspecting its inner workings.

The scars on Shiro’s arms leading to the installation of the prosthetic were no shock to Pidge. She examined Shiro’s arm before. To Hunk however, it was a bit unsettling. Not because of the scars or lack of biological arm itself, but because Hunk had seen human prosthetics before. Clean amputations done in medical procedures. It was a hard toss up for him try to conclude what had happened for Shiro to need this arm. Whether the result of pure experimentation, or if something had happened beforehand to make a need was what bothered him.

“Not often this arms goes out of service. Or at all really.” Hunk spoke up, trying to turn his own attention away from dwelling on the cause for the arm and rather now how to fix it. “Those little blue guys must have got you right in the right spot.” He referred to the inhabitants of the planet.

“Right spot, or the wrong spot.” Pidge smiled lazily and her comment earned similar gestures in return from her companions. “But yeah, I agree.” She used her index finger to slide her glasses up the narrow bridge of her nose.

It would be a somewhat long and tedious process for Pidge and Hunk to locate which part of the system was fried, but they assured Shiro they could do it. Shiro watched and waited, his interest waining off for some time and he could feel a wave of tiredness sweep over him. He was determined to not let sleep win. It was a battle of bobbing his head around, rubbing at his face and rolling his shoulder and neck to try to keep the ever growing need for sleep away. But he could only stave it off for so long in that peaceful position with his arm on the table.

Shiro was jerked out of his hovering phase between consciousness and unconsciousness when a sudden shock went jolting through his body. He was immediately awake. Shiro tensed, his galra arm clenching into a fist as he brought his other hand around to claw at the point of connection. The pain seared at the entire right limb, mechanical and all. It radiated to his shoulder and back. He bit down on his tongue and was surprised he did not draw blood. It was all he could do to stop himself from hollering before the panicked yells of Hunk and Pidge filled his ears. It felt like forever before the shock stopped and he was able to lean back against the wall. His breathing was heavy, a sheen of sweat was collecting on his skin.

“SORRY!” Pidge exclaimed, a small probing tool with a toothed metal clamp on the end in her hand. Shiro looked over weakly, still panting. She had evidently put the clamp on the wrong bundle of circuits. “It won’t happen again I’m so sorry!” Pidge looked like she was about to burst into tears. It took Shiro a couple more breaths before he could speak.

“It’s fine.” He managed a reassuring smile. “I’ve had worse. Just startled me is all.” He hoped that would satisfy Pidge into not worrying too much about it. It seemed to have the opposite effect.

Shiro let his lower body slump some in the chair. When his head leaned to rest against the wall, he realized how tired he was. He had had a long day. Now that he thought of it, he had had a long past few days. He could hardly recollect any sufficient amount of sleep he had gotten and the shock seemed to do him in for any energy reserves he had left to pretend like he was not in desperate need of some shut eye.

Pidge’s voice kept lulling its way into Shiro’s ear, keeping him in the present but after a few minutes he could hardly understand what she or Hunk were saying. Techno babble, he was certain. Along with a number of continuing apologies from Pidge, accompanied by Hunk’s explanation that he had told Pidge where to put the clamp and she apparently did not listen.

With his heart rate finally settling back to normal and the adrenaline of the shock wearing off, Shiro could hardly keep his eyes open. He was trying not to give in to his heavy eyelids. Sleep was unfortuneatly one of his enemies. Almost every time he slept he dreamt. And the dreams were not pleasant. They were all hellish nightmares, suppressed memories and worst fears. Despite being uncomfortably cold from the lack of clothes and the persistent tinkering with his arm, he could no longer stave off sleep and he slipped into a restful unconsciousness.

Hunk looked over from his work to Shiro at one point and frowned. He was unmoving. His chest rising but slowly, his eyes closed.

“Oh.. crap.. Uh Pidge? Is he okay?” Pidge looked up from her schematic she had began to lay out of the arm once before to glance at what Hunk was looking at. She could not really see where Hunk’s concern was coming from.

“Uh.. ya. Looks like he’s sleeping.” She wriggled her nose and took a second look to make sure. While he did not necessarily look peaceful or comfortable, Shiro was out like a light. Hunk outstretched a hand, obviously with the intent to shake at Shiro’s shoulder. Pidge made a quick strike with a tool at Hunk’s arm. “What’s wrong with you? Don’t wake him up!”

“What why not, shouldn’t he be awake for this?”

“I can’t imagine why he would need to be. We’re not operating on his brain. As soon as we replace these few filaments the arm should be working fine.” Pidge explained, her voice hushed. She glanced at her watch. They had only been working for about an hour, but it had felt like forever.

“Yeah as long as you don’t shock the poor guy again.” Hunk huffed and Pidge snapped at him with the tool once more.

“Let him be.” Pidge’s tone was defensive, but she spoke lowly so as not to increase the chance of disturbing Shiro’s snoozing. Hunk eyed at her suspiciously before his features softened and took another glance at their sleeping leader as well.

The project to fix the arm had been underway for nearly two hours before the inner workings began to glow. Lights bouncing to a fro between wires, circuits, filaments. The time did not pass without disturbances though. Lance and Keith had both stopped in to give them all dinner which woke Shiro, but only momentarily. He quickly slipped back to his sleeping state. Coran and Allura came in at different times to check on the progress, but they were shooed away.

Pidge watched as the the fingers at the end of the mechanical arm twitched ever so slightly and the arm shifted so the palm moved from face up to flat as the arm moved across the table. Shiro stirred and he inhaled a sleepy breath and let his weight shift more towards the table.

“Hey we did it!” Hunk proclaimed excitedly before he and Pidge exchanged a quiet high five. “Uh.. should we wake him up?” Hunk scratched at his head. Pidge’s smile turned into a quick frown.

“I… I feel bad leaving him here but.. He doesn’t sleep much. I really don’t want to wake him up.” Pidge creased her brow inwards. She stole a concerned glance between sleeping Shiro and Hunk.  
“Wait.”Hunk proclaimed after they had carefully replaced the other covering they had taken off of Shiro’s arm. A smirk grew on his face. “I have an idea. You stay here.” And With that, Hunk was off.

Pidge sat and waited, confused and wondering what Hunk was up to. After he failed to return within a few minutes time, she took the opportunity to try to clean up the work station. She was turned around at a tool box when she heard Shiro stirring. 

Pidge turned swiftly to see Shiro with his eyes slightly open in a dazed state. He must have mostly still been sleeping because he shifted and made a pained groan before moving so that he could rest his head and both of his arms on the table. Pidge approached him to see past the white bangs that hung over his forehead that he had once again closed his eyes. She let out a sigh of relief.

Hunk had now returned with a large stockpile of blankets and pillows and proceeded to toss them all over the ground near the table. He handed a pillow and blanket to Pidge and indicated that she should perhaps try to place the pillow under Shiro’s head and the blanket over top of him. As Pidge worked on that, Hunk set up a large comfy sleep pile on the ground next to the table Shiro slept at.

“Now we don’t have to leave him, and we don’t have to wake him up.” He smiled brightly, and Pidge giggled as quietly as she could. Yes, this would work just fine. And so Pidge and Hunk shut off the lighting of the lab, save for a dim lamp on the other side of the room which offered enough light for Shiro to see should he wake. The two of them tucked themselves into the pillow pile and dozed off to sleep as well.


End file.
